Coin chute



F, A. HOYT COIN CHUTE Filed March 6, 1954 INVENTOR E A. HOYT W A 7'TORNEY Patented Dec. 10, 1935 COIN CHUTE Frederick A. Hoyt, East Orange, N. J assignor to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 6, 1934, Serial No. 714,338

9 Claims.

taining goods or services from coin controlled apparatus.

The invention provides improved means for rejecting washers, thin coins or discs the same diameter as legitimate coins, and undersized coins or slugs, and for preventing the successful operation of coin controlled devices by the manipulation of undersized coins or slugs as they are inserted or after insertion in the chute.

Specifically, the invention provides a barrier which cooperates with a washer ejector disposed in the side of the chute immediately before it and a reject opening for undersized coins disposed in the side of the chute immediately following it. All coins or slugs placed in the chute are momentarily arrested by the barrier and their plane of movement abruptly changed by rotation of the coins and slugs about an axis tangent to the lower edge.

In other words, the coins and slugsafter being arrested by the barrier tip over toward the side of the chute against the washer ejector, which, in the case of legitimate coins or in which Fig. 1 is a partial side elevation in section of a wall telephone set showing a coin chute mounted therein;

Fig. 2 is a partial front elevation in perspective of a coin chute showing a legitimate coin passing the washer ejector;

Fig. 3 is a similar view of the coin chute showing a washer about to be ejected;

Fig. 4 is a partial plan view of the novel barrier and Washer ejector; and

Fig. 5 is the corresponding elevation of the barrier and ejector of Fig. 4.

Referring now to- Fig. 1, H3 is a coin box in which is mounted a circuit controlling switch H adapted to be operated by a pivoted receiver support 12. A portion 53 of the top of the box if! is inclined and is perforated at it to permit the passage therethrough of coins of various denominations.

Mounted immediately below the perforation I4 is a multiple chute l5, made preferably by the die-casting method, with a separate passageway for each of three types of coins, nickels, dimes and quarters. The chute I5, as shown in Fig. 1, is inclined towards the right, 5 which is normally toward the front of the coin box. Any coin passing through the chute will, therefore, be supported in part by the front wall of the chute, and if this wall is cut away or altered in such a manner as to beunable to sup- 10 port a coin, the coin will fall into the forward position I! of box I!) and will not continue in the chute.

At an appropriate location with respect to the chute'l5 may be placed a gong 58 or other audi- 15 ble signaling device operable by the coin as it progresses through the chute. A gauge I9 is mounted above opening M in multiple chute IE to enable the user to drop the various coins into their respective chutes.

In Fig. 2 is shown a portion of the chute which is used for the passage of nickels. The portion comprises a substantially vertical section located at the entrance to the chute through which the coin is dropped, and an adjacent inclined section through which the coin rolls. The chute is inclined forward, as illustrated in Fig. 1, so that front wall It forms part of the support for the coin, and rear wall 20 acts merely as a guide therefor. To impart an initial ejecting force to the coin as it is dropped, a guide 2! is provided which cooperates with padded portion 33 of front wall IE to rotate the coin about a vertical axis and to cause the forward edge of the coin to tend to turn out of the chute. The guide is also 35 designed to throw the coin to the right so that when a coin is dropped into the chute, it strikes a retaining bar 22 and the bottom 23 of the chute. The bottom of the inclined section of the chute, however, is made several times wider than the coin for ejecting purposes, and unless the coin is very carefully and uniformly guided as it is dropped, it will not strike the bottom 23 in exactly the same place and manner each time and hence its subsequent motion may be indeterminable. For this reason, a small portion 24 (Figs. 4 and 5) of the bottom 23 at the beginning of the inclined section of the chute is narrowed to cause the coin always to fall in the same place, and its subsequent motion, therefore, to be always the same. The chute, however, even at this point, is still a trifle wider than the coin to prevent the coin from binding between the walls.

When a coin is dropped into the chute it strikes bottom 24 and retaining bar 22 and then changes its direction and begins to pass through the inclined section of the chute. Before progressing very far, however, it. encounters an oblique barrier 25, and, due to the loss of energy at the previous impact with bottom 24 and retaining bar 22, the additional impact with barrier 25 momentarily arrests the coin. Thus the original energy imparted to the coin by the person dropping the coin into the chute is, to a large extent, dissipated and all coins, legitimate or otherwise, begin to roll down the inclined section of the chute under the action of gravity alone.

As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the barrier comprises a plane surface disposed normally to thebottom 23 of the inclined section and at an angle to the walls thereof. combined with the forward inclination of the chute, tends to tip the upper left-hand portion of the coin out of the chute. The lower edge of the coin, however, remains in contact with rear tail 34 which is accurately located on the chute with respect to barrier 25 by means of apertures 35 through which dowels 36, die-cast with the chute, are threaded. Ejector 26 then supports the coin while the upper edge of the'coin slides along barrier 25 until the edge encounters slot 21, whereupon barrier 25 no longer restrains the coin and it begins to roll down the chute. While it is rolling, itsupperedge is in contact with the upper edge 28 of an ejecting opening in front wall l6, As in the case of ejector 26, upper edge 28 may also comprise a portion of a separate detail 31 which is' accurately located on the chute 'with respect to barrier 25 and bottom 23 0f the chute by means of die-cast dowels 38 cooperating with apertures 39 in the detail. The upper edge 28,is designed to restore the tipped coin to parallelism with the walls of the chute and to guide the coin into the remainder of the chute.

The distance between edge 28'and the. intersecthan the'legitimate coin will not be supported by edge'28 thereat, and will consequently fall out of the chute. At slot 27, however, portion 32 of edge 28 is located considerably closer to the bottom 23 of the'chute to insure the entrance of a legitimate coin into the chute, but it is still far enough away from prong 26 to permit, washers and other centrally perforated discs ,to be ejected by the prong.

' In the case of a washer, as illustrated in Fig.

3, the tipping following the encounter with bar- I rier 25 continues-beyond the angle atwhich the coin of Fig. 2 was supported, by prong 26, because there is nothing for the, prongto contact "except the innerperiphery 29 0f the washer. The upper edge of washer 38 is, therefore tipped beyond slot 2?, being held the Whileby prong 26,.

and washer t l can not thereafter enter the inclinedsection of the chute. Prong 2 6 is not de- This angularity with the walls,

signed to hold the washer permanently, but mere- 1y suff ciently long to allow it to assume a slight additional twist toward the reject opening and hence, on passing slot 21, washer 30 continues times possible to give an undersized coin addltional momentum by spinning it as it is dropped into the chute, and with the aid of the additional momentum, to cause the coin to pass by the reject opening too rapidly to be effected thereby. With the barrier inserted in the chute, however, any coin which is spun to give it additional momentum will simply strike the barrier and rebound until it is substantially deenergized, whereuponit will roll down the chute under the action of gravity alone and will be subject to ejection as though it had not been spun.

Another scheme sometimes employed to make an undersized coin pass the ejecting opening, consists in filling in the bottom of the groove with a granular substance until the coin is raised sufficiently to engage the upper edge of the opening When a coin is arrested, however, as by barrier 25, it sinks into the granular substance and rolls more nearly along the bottom 23 of the groove, thereby being subject again to the action of the rejecting opening.

It is understood that this invention is not limited to coin chutes either as used in telephone Stations or elsewhere, but that it is applicable generally to all devices intended to pass discs of a certain character and to reject discs which are smaller or thinner than the desired discs, or discs which are perforated at or near their centers.

What is claimed is:

1. A coin chute having opposite side walls between which a coin travels substantially parallel thereto, said walls defining a substantially vertical section and an inclined section, a barrier between said sections for momentarily arresting coins and slugs deposited in the chute, one of said side walls having an opening in the inclined portion immediately following said barrier for ejecting underdiameter coins and slugs, and an opening immediately preceding said'barrier, and means projecting into said last opening to eject washers from said chute. i

2. A coin chute having a track along which the coins roll, said track lying in a transversely inclined plane, a guide for the upper edge of the coin'lying in the plane oblique to the plane of said track, said guide and said track defining an opening progressively increasing in width for rejecting undersized coins and slugs, and a barrier at the beginning of said opening for momentarily arresting the movements of coins and slugs. 1 3. A coin chute having a track along which the coins roll, said track lying in a transversely inclined plane, a guide for the upper edge of the coin lying in the. plane oblique to the plane of said track, said guide and said track defining an opening progressively increasing in Width for rejecting undersized coins and slugs, and a barrier at the beginning of said opening for momentarily arresting the movements of coins and slugs, said barrier lying in a transverse plane substantially perpendicular to the plane of said track, one edge of said barrier being tapered and forming with said guide a slot for coins and slugs.

4. A coin chute having a longitudinally vertical section, and a longitudinally inclined section, said sections having side walls defining a channel, and means for rejecting spurious coins and slugs comprising a barrier between said sections extending from one of said side Walls partially across the channel, the walls of said sections being sloped transversely so that coins and. slugs will turn abruptly sidewise past said barrier one of said side walls having an opening therein the Width of which is slightly less than the diameter of a legitimate coin immediately following said barrier whereby coins and slugs of underdiameter are rejected.

5. A coin chute having a longitudinally vertical ection, a longitudinally inclined section having side walls defining a channel, and means for rejecting washers comprising a barrier extending partially across said channel from one of said side walls and between said sections, the opposite side wall having an opening therein immediately in advance of said barrier, the vertical dimension of said opening being greater than the diameter of a legitimate coin, a prong extending from the edge of said opening to prevent legitimate coins from falling out of the chute and for engaging the inner periphery of a washer to turn it out of thhe channel through said opening.

6. A coin chute having side walls defining a channel, a barrier extending from one of said side Walls partially across said channel for momentarily arresting coins and slugs, means comprising in one of said side walls an opening immediately in advance of said barrier for ejecting washers, and means immediately following said barrier for ejecting coins and slugs of underdiameter.

therein to reject washers of the same diameter as legitimate coins, a barrier extending partially across said channel for momentarily arresting all washers deposited in said chute and for causing said washers to fall toward said opening, and a prong projecting from the edge of said opening for engaging the inner periphery of the washers to turn them out of the chute.

8. A die-cast coin chute having a longitudinally vertical section, a longitudinally inclined section having side walls defining a channel, and means for rejecting washers comprising a barrier extending partially across said channel from one of said side walls and between said sections, the opposite side wall having an opening therein immediately in advance of said barrier, the vertical dimension of said opening being greater than the diameter of a legitimate coin, a prong extending from the edge of said opening to prevent legitimate coins from falling out of the chute and for engaging the inner periphery of a Washer to turn it out of the channel through said opening, said prong comprising an extension of a separate detail, and means for accurately locating said detail With respect to the chute, said means comprising apertures in the detail and dowels die-cast in the chute and extending through said apertures.

9. A coin chute having opposed side Walls forming a channel between which a coin travels substantially parallel thereto due to gravity, said chute being laterally inclined, a barrier extending from one of said walls partially across the channel for momentarily arresting coins and slugs deposited in said chute, the lower of said side walls having an opening immediately following said barrier for ejecting under-diameter coins and slugs and an opening immediately preceding said barrier, and means projecting into said last opening to eject washers from said chute.

FREDERICK A. HOYT. 

